Saving the world, one plant at a time

Category: Houston Wild Flowers

The weeds are the plants I have the most difficult time ID’ing. No one puts out books on weeds.

This showed up a few years ago and it’s been impossible to eradicate. On the upside they are tall and pull up easy so it’s not a lot of work to remove them. Best practice is to pull them before they have a chance to reseed. Seeds require light to germinate

Height: up to 2′
Annual
Prefers warm, moist, shady soil, but will grow in full sun
Native to Asia

Don’t try this at hone:
– plant may have anti-tumor, antiviral properties. This is folklore, I couldn’t find any scientific studies to back this up

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You see these often in Austin, it’s a bit too warm for them in Houston. They bloom in March each year. Poppies are annual but will reseed themselves. If you are purchasing seeds plant them in the fall after it gets chilly.

Seeds will survive in the soil for years, plants appear when the soil is disturbed exposing the seeds to some light. This is why they were so commonly seen near the trenches of WWI

Poppies produce prodigious amounts of pollen making them a great addition to a bee garden.

Native to Africa, extensively found throughout Middle East and the colder parts of Europe

The first mention of it in the US is in the early 1800s in Ohio. It was brought to US to use to control soil erosion. Later it became a popular ornamental plant.

Flowers open at dusk to attract hawk moths who are the main pollinators. While they are frequently visited by bees, bees tend to remove more pollen than they leave for pollination.

Propagate by cutting

Native to Russia and Central Asia, listed as invasive by multiple sources. Birds eating seeds do most of the spreading, to control, trim plants before seeds form.

Many components of the plant are medicinal and parts are edible (Foraging Texas), but the berries are poison. Near as I can tell almost every plant down here is trying to murder you so proceed with caution.

Help

New Gardens

The bamboo, lots of yaupon and a couple not so healthy pines have been removed. A slew of drought tolerant, bee/butterfly/hummingbird attractors have been planted.

I’m learning more about landscaping. As I wander with the hound on our daily walks I snap photos of cool gardens. You’ll see more of those here and more ways to create beautiful environmentally friendly landscapes using native and or cheap, low footprint plants

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